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Facebook plans to migrate its Sponsored Stories ad platform into users' news feeds early next year, the company says. Introduced last January, Sponsored Stories - a new ad format integrating your Facebook friends' activities into small ads - began appearing in the column on the right side of the News Feed. Last month, the ads began appearing in the Ticker as well. Perhaps anticipating criticism for the latest migration of Sponsored Stories, a Facebook rep emphasized that the ads will be used sparingly. Most users, she says, will see the maximum of one ad per day in their News Feeds. The speed at which the ads cycle through the News Feed, meanwhile, will depend on various factors that Facebook hasn't yet determined, a Facebook rep says.

"IMAGE: AFP/GETTY IMAGES BY KARISSA BELL SEP 24, 2018 For all its behind-the-scenes innovation, Google Search has looked more or less the same for the last 20 years: You type some words in a search box and get back a list of links.  The company's added lots of bells and whistles over the years, but the core concept has remained the same and the experience has pretty much looked the same. But that will soon be changing. SEE ALSO: Google Search gets a slew of new features on its 20th anniversary   At an event marking the 20th anniversary of search, Google revealed a suite of updates that are meant to fundamentally change the way we search, and how search results look and feel. You'll still see lists of links but, increasingly you'll also see features typically thought of as being squarely in the territory of social media companies: news feeds, vertical video, photo-centric content, and, yes, Stories. A quick recap of some of the specific updates: Google's personalized feed feature, now called "Discover," will be rolling out to all mobile users and to its homepage on desktop. The feed surfaces content based on your interests and search history. You can also save stuff from your feed to topic-based "collections." The company is "doubling down," on Stories, which will start to appear more frequently in search results. In addition to the publisher-created AMP Stories (Mashable is a partner on the initiative), Google will now use AI to automatically create tappable Stories about specific topics, like celebrities.  Google Images is getting a total overhaul, including a new ranking algorithm that will emphasize "evergreen content," like recipes and DIY content.  Google Lens will be integrated directly into Google Images so you can search for specific items within photos."

Yahoo News, The Washington Post,The Independent, and The Guardian have amassed millions of readers for social editions of the publications that launched in September. These publications are all sending large numbers of posts into Facebook news feeds, often to the point of eclipsing other types of content

"Facebook's News Feed, a homepage built by our friends and organized by our clicks and likes, isn't really a "news" feed. It's an entertainment portal for stories that remind us of our lives and offer something like an emotional popper. In fact, news readers self-identify as a minority on Facebook: Fewer than half ever read "news" on the site, according to a 2013 Pew study, and just 10 percent of them go to Facebook to get the news on purpose, as opposed, say, being assaulted by a breaking news event when you're just scanning baby photos. To see this more clearly, let's compare the BuzzFeed network's most viral stories-i.e.: the stories that go biggest on Facebook-to the top stories on Twitter and the most-searched stories. First, here are the top stories on Twitter in 2013. It's a blend of news, like terrorist attacks and music shows, and evergreen silliness with Ryan Gosling and Kim Kardashian. "

"A week ago, The Washington Post reported that altered videos ("shallowfakes") of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - slowed down to make it look as if she were drunk and slurring her words - were spreading on social media. Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's personal attorney, tweeted one of them (though he later deleted the tweet). From the Post: One version, posted by the conservative Facebook page Politics WatchDog, had been viewed more than 2 million times by Thursday night, been shared more than 45,000 times, and garnered 23,000 comments with users calling her "drunk" and "a babbling mess." YouTube took the videos down. Facebook said it would downrank them, but wouldn't remove them altogether. "We don't have a policy that stipulates that the information you post on Facebook must be true," Facebook said in a statement to The Washington Post. The company said it instead would "heavily reduce" the video's appearances in people's news feeds, append a small informational box alongside the video linking to the two fact-check sites, and open a pop-up box linking to "additional reporting" whenever someone clicks to share the video. Monika Bikert, Facebook's head of product policy and counterterrorism, told CNN's Anderson Cooper that Facebook's policy is that "people make their own informed choice about what to believe. Our job is to make sure we're getting them accurate information." She claimed that "anybody who is seeing this video in their news feed, anybody who is going to share it to somebody else, anybody who has shared it in the past, they are being alerted that this video is false.""

"f you are reading this online right now, the machines have done their job. The algorithms served you this piece because you probably already know and believe in the ideas I'm about to put forth. This story bounced into your feed because what I am about to say might not be dramatically new to you. But it will likely reinforce that you are an intelligent person, whose ideas are well-thought-out and compatible with society. Or, more precisely, with the society you wish we were. Because that's the world we live in these days. We know what we know and we only reluctantly venture into the world of the unknown. We (and the machines) have identified who we are and we feel pretty good about it. Why change? Sure, every once in a while, we'll peek under the curtain to see what others are doing or saying but that's only to find fodder to ridicule those who disagree with us. The reality is that we are not much of a society today. We are a nation of individuals. There is a cable network for every interest, a website for every topic, a news organization for every political party, a social media feed for any ideology, and message boards for everyone else. It's easy to stay in your lane, even without the machines dictating what we see on Twitter, Facebook, or Google."

"Social media influencers ply their trade in realms far beyond fake lashes. Marketers of literature, wellness, fashion, entertainment, and other wares are all hooked on influencers. As brands have warmed to social-media advertising, influencer marketing has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry. Unlike traditional television or print ads, influencers have dedicated niche followings who take their word as gospel. There's another plus: Many users don't view influencers as paid endorsers or salespeople-even though a significant percentage are-but as trusted experts, friends, and "real" people. This perceived authenticity is part of why brands shell out so much cash in exchange for a brief appearance in your Instagram feed."

"Facebook is exquisitely designed to feed our addiction to hyper-partisan content. In this world, fringe players who are apt to be more strident end up at the top of our news feeds, burying the middle ground. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports on the ways junk news feeds into our own beliefs about politics, institutions and government."

he Nielsen company's latest report shows that social networking has become ubiquitous while watching TV and while using the bathroom.

"McDonald's is testing the waters for a Twitter hashtag campaign again with its first TV ad directing users to join the conversation on Twitter. The effort, which began Monday, supports the brand's Pro Bowl tie-in. For 20 days this month, McDonald's will drop one ticket a day to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii in a package of 20-piece McNuggets. (The item will contain a paper certificate saying so, in the tradition of Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket.) The brand will also give away one ticket on Twitter and randomly award prizes to people who tweet with the #mcdprobowl hashtag from the ad. Prizes include coupons for a free 20-piece McNuggets, a year's supply of McNugget sauce and personalized tweets from NFL players to fans, among others. Rick Wion, director of social media for McDonald's, says that the brand chose Twitter because of "the amount of conversation going on there" around the game."

"The Federal Trade Commission revealed today that only 20% of 400 mobile apps aimed at children included any privacy disclosures before or after downloads. The agency said it is investigating whether certain companies have violated laws protecting children online by failing to disclose the types of data gathered through apps and how those data are used. As the year draws to a close, regulators and lawmakers seem increasingly motivated to impose some clarity on the murky world of mobile apps. The FTC is expected to unveil an update to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act to require more transparency on data collection by mobile-industry players soon. In addition, the Department of Commerce will discuss a code of conduct for mobile privacy notifications next week."

"The FTC is taking a hard look at mobile apps targeted at children that may be collecting information without a parent's consent. In this week's Mini Law Lesson, Winston & Strawn's Brian Heidelberger breaks down what you need to know to keep your mobile apps on the right side of the law."

This year in viral video, advertisers either broke new ground or just got better at old concepts. But what is clear from this year's top 10 is how passion - for a company, brand or creative concept - continues to drive innovation in viral video advertising.  Here are the top 10 most innovative viral video ads of 2012.. 

"In a 2011 op-ed about media literacy I posited the following questions: "Are you illiterate if you don't know how to interpret a tweet? If you can't tell the difference between fact and fiction on Twitter, does that mean you are lacking media literacy skills?" If you can't make a determination of truth about the content in your Twitter and Facebook feed, or if you can't figure out which sources are trustworthy in a set of Google search results, then all that information is doing you a disservice. As our technology evolves, and our streams become even more packed with tweets, articles, videos, pictures and posts, the concept of media literacy evolves with it."

"From now until New Year's, Creativity will be counting down the best creative brand ideas of 2012."

"A tear-jerking viral video, called "2012: What Brought Us Together," is making the rounds online. Posted to YouTube on Tuesday, the six-minute video is a montage of major moments over the past year, from silly to serious. Set to the music of This Will Destroy You's "The Mighty Rio Grande," It includes clips about Hurricane Sandy, KONY 2012, the Costa Concordia disaster and the suicide of Amanda Todd."

"A change in the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) means that children under the age of 13 can be shown ads targeted toward them when they're online. This could lead to Facebook lowering its age of admission. Drafted in 1998, well before MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks burst onto the scene, the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday updated COPPA. The amendments work to protect children online, noting that certain information cannot be collected without parental consent, such as geolocation information and photos. However, the act also notes that it's now OK to advertise to children under the age of 13 (which is Facebook's minimum age requirement):"

"It was a big year for sports and car commercials. In fact, almost all of these ads feature a sports star, a car or both -- and many were broadcast during the Super Bowl."

"Tell me, what do these two memes at right have in common? Answer: Both are false. Someone somewhere sat down at a computer, pulled up photo of Hillary Clinton, and concocted an overt lie. The same is true with regard to whoever falsely attributed the above statement about Republican stupidity to Donald Trump. I've seen both of these memes make a few appearances on my Facebook feed this election season. At times I wonder about the mindset of those who purposefully craft lies. Perhaps they are nihilists. Perhaps they are rigid ideologues bent on winning the war of ideas by defaming the other side at all costs. Who cares about the truth? Right? Wrong. Truth matters. Truth is not the property of any individual. It is the property of us all, worthy of our ardent protection."

"NBA star Stephen Curry is famous for shooting three-pointers. So, for each one he sinks during this year's postseason, Under Armour will honor him with a new three-second ad."